Matt's first dance

Matt attended his first Winter Formal tonight with Elsinore High. His girlfriend Jolie convinced him to go (I bet she'll never try to do that again!) ... but Matt isn't exactly a fan of dances, dancing, or the "quiet room" (whatevr it's called) where they separate couples who are dancing too close.

Before they left for the evening, he humored me with the camera. And before you ask, Yes, this is what (many) teenage boys wear going to dances. ;-)

SICK :-(

We have been very lucky - and I didn't realize just how lucky until Monday, January 17 ... at 6:35am, when the flu hit (or I think it was the flu - it knew some kung fu voodoo, whatever it was!). Kyan and I had made plans to go down to Grammy's for MLK Day - just a nice time with my mama. And John was ready to sleep in and then do a few yard/house things at his leisure. That dream also ended promptly at 6:35am, as my illness quickly changed all of our plans. then, about 15 minutes later, John had the pleasure of tending to Kyan as he suddenly became violently ill. And so the day began...

All that day, and the next, Kyan and I were out of commission. John's entire Monday was spent caring for our sick boy and cleaning up evidence of illness, as I lay practically paralzyed in our bed. On Tuesday, Lex took morning duty and my mom graciously drove up to take afternoon duty with the little man, since I was completely and utterly useless. Thankfully, I was on the mend by Wednesday, but Kyan wasn't. We both stayed home on Thursday, too. And we made zero plans on Friday. Woopee! LOL

No, no pictures of this scary scene, but I did capture this one video (sorry for the quality) that shows Kyan clearly had no idea that he was a sick puppy.



Eleven days later, Kyan is still 2+ pounds lighter (and I'm not, unfortunately). He has been back to school and I have been back to work. His doctor thinks he had the "cruise virus", but I guess we'll never really know.

What does this all have to do with being lucky? I can never remember being so sick in my entire life. And Kyan has never been this sick, either. ever. ever. ever... So, we are very thankful for our health and I'm very thankful I am not a single mom and that John gets all government holidays off... or I would have been in trouble!!!!!!! Random post, I know. I hope the video brings you a smile. Crazy kid. ;-)

Cruisin'! And Happy New Year!

On December 26, John, Kyan and I set off on our first cruise with friends Kelly and Lee.

Backing up to August … Kelly and Lee, far more adventurous than we are, were toying with the idea of taking a cruise to the Mexican Riviera for New Year’s. We threw the idea around but it didn’t take much to convince us that it sounded like a fantastic way to start 2011! Matt and Lex weren’t too interested, but Kyan was all over it! So there it was… we ran to get his mini-mug shot for his passport, and the wheels were set in motion.

After months of counting down and pretend-dieting to prepare for this adventure, Christmas came and went quietly and the following day, we were out the door!

December 26 … We were overwhelmed with excitement!

Kyan's first shot as we're boarding. He is wide-eyed and ready!

Kelly, camera-ready for our big adventure! (And Elmo came, too.)
Kyan with his favorite pal, Uncle Lee…

...watching San Diego get smaller and smaller as we pull away from the dock. Ooh! Ooh!

December 27 & 28 were both full days on the water, so we spent them wandering the ship, getting lost a few times, exploring the café, eating, going for afternoon tea, eating some more, checking out the art gallery and auctions, eating, drinking, and more eating...

On our balcony (aka "lanai" or "verandah" in ship-speak) ;-)

Umm, is this a LEASH?!

Time to explore the ship!


New friend... and just his size!


I want this globe!

On deck


December 27, which happened to be a Monday night, was also the first of two formal nights. John and Lee opted to watch the last Monday Night Football game of the season in the sports bar, and Kelly and I had ourselves a hot date for dinner.

Daddy, dressing the little guy
My hot date
Umm, show off much???
Quite the little diner, in his big-boy chair
A little morning downtime after his big night out...


December 29 was our first day on land … Mazatlan! It is a very small, not-very-old town that didn’t have a lot going on, but we enjoyed it. We all took a short bus tour, which included a stop at one of their more antiquated cathedrals, a drive through the fish market, a few viewpoints which included watching cliff divers, and a show...

Le Tour Bus

La Iglesia



A few scenic shots (Alex, could have used you to take some of your awesome photos!) ;-)



(CRAZY!!) Cliff Diver

A view of our ship (and another) from one of our scenic spots

... We ended up ditching the show in favor of mariachis, street tacos, and margaritas and then took a window-less, door-less taxi ride (with me clinging to Kyan for dear life!) through town in search of recuerdos de beisbol (baseball souvenirs), as Mazatlan has a professional baseball team, the Venados. We didn’t make the tour of the Pacifico Brewery, but when we returned to our stateroom at the end of the day and looked out off of our balcony, we spied the brewery -- right there straight ahead of us. Next time, fellas…


Kyan LOVED the mariachis!
Death Cab (and Lee, the ultimate optimist!)
Kyan had NO idea we were in a death mobile, nor did he realize I had a death grip on him. Look how mellow he is ... a natural.


Last margarita (and juice box) stop...
This is where Kyan's love affair with balloons REALLY began.
Ky made a friend ... who happens to be a sword fighter!

Very afraid of the mighty sword, clearly!
Oh, dear God... (Oh, John had his first jell-o shot that day... and he was feeling ALL of it.)
Time to head back to the ship. Here we are, on our little shuttle. (And John is still feeling the effects of his jello-gem and margaritas.)
Kelly and Lee, on said shuttle.

Shuttles are FUNNNN (apparently)!

Well, boys, you can pretend that you were there. (Note the Pacifico Brewery behind them.) And PS, balloons ROCK.

PPS ... John is still feeling the effects of the afternoon, and a bit of Kyan's dance moves have finally been captured on video. Just don't tell John that HIS were captured, too.

The following day, we went to Puerto Vallarta. Now THIS is a place I’d love to return to. I think it was the favorite for all of us. Not that I have ever boasted about my mad geography skills, but I had no idea that it is so beautiful, so lush. Little did I realize that it’s actually a jungle, with hundreds upon hundreds of species of animals, birds, plants, insects. No, I’m not an insect junkie (and there are others who love birds far more than I do) but just hearing the bits we heard was fascinating and you couldn’t help but be awed by just the parts that we saw from the edge, looking in. We had a nice tourist-day – we took a bus ride to a lovely cathedral, saw where Hollywood scandal left its mark in the ‘60’s (anyone see Night of the Iguana?), shopped a bit, and hit up (and sampled!) a tequila factory – but it is on my list of places to return to, and I’d love to spend some time going a little more native (in the non-naked sense).

Walking the boardwalk...

Not sure why or how often this happens, but all along the boardwalk, there were HUGE, larger than life-size sand sculptures - of everything you can imagine. Animals galore, mythical creatures, architecture... Not sure what to say about it other than the fact that it was very cool.



Kind of a cool cantina behind our group...
Ok, there was a lot of art along the boardwalk in PV - and I mean WEIRD art. Sorry if I offend any artsy people out there, but it was just... odd. Like this metal gem climbing high up to the sky.

But weird or not, we made new friends.

Ok, this was kind of cool... I mentioned that we ditched a show in Mazatlan that was part of our tour. Well, we saw the gyst of it here in Puerto Vallarta. Papantla Flyers perform a ritualistic "dance" where they climb a pole 30m into the air and launch themselves off of a (rickety looking) base, attached by their legs to ropes. As this base rotates around, the ropes unwind and the men end up making their way lower and lower to the ground. Why? Not entirely sure other than the fact that this has been going on a long time. Google it.


Hey! Mr. Vallarta, himself.
This was a lovely cathedral in town that we spent a few minutes at.

Our bus tour took us to the rather ritzy part of town. I didn't take photos of the mansions but this sculpture was kinda cool.

Ah, the tequila factory. Not the most glamorous looking place on the outside, but the inside held what mattered. This is actually a non-working factory, but as part of our tour (before the tasting) we did learn some cool info about the traditional methods for making tequila. Good times there. And I feel so wise now... I know much more about tequila than the Papantla Flyers, for example!
Time for tasting! (This was the first of SIX. Kelly and I stopped long before the boys did. They drank ours, too.)

Kyan liked the tasting room, too!

Back on the bus! We're all feeling pretty good, now!
As luck would have it, Kelly forgot to bring a pair of black heels on the cruise. Tsk Tsk. So as luck would have it, we found a huge mall right across the street from the cruise ship terminal. Kelly and her love of Nine West shoes goes international (again).
Our ship, from the steps of said-mall.
Random shot of the channel, Puerto Vallarta.

December 31 was our day in Cabo San Lucas. I have heard it is so beautiful there, and was eager to go. It is pretty, but not at all what I expected. From the minute we got off the boat at the marina, we were hit up for every type of activity that you could imagine… from training dolphins to scuba diving or snorkeling, to parasailing, to chartering a yacht in hopes of catching a marlin… And countless water taxis!

We walked along the marina and our intentions were set on finding a few specific spots – Cabo Wabo, since John loves Van Halen, Hard Rock Café for a souvenir glass, Starbucks for my mug, our last Mexican lunch, and then hitting the beach. Pretty American agenda, right? ;-) Well, little did we know just how American Cabo really is! They have Chilis, Walgreens, and Applebees… Seriously! And unlike the quaint little tours we were able to choose from in the other cities, there really wasn’t anything native to Cabo to check out. So, we did our walking, shopping, and dining (and found free wi-fi!) – and Kyan made friends with an iguana along the trail.

Cabo Wabo, for breakfast margaritas




Kyan's new friend

He REALLY wanted a sombrero! REALLY!!
My first real iced tea in close to a week! Viva Hard Rock Cafe!

After iguanas, sombreros, a morning marg, and Starbucks, we went for lunch. ALL along the marina, nothing but restaurants and cantinas (and on the Luxury Avenue straight ahead in this pic) jewelry stores aplenty. Like I said, quite the touristy place and party-city.

At lunch... also the place where we found free wi-fi for those who noticed our brief Facebook marathon. Now you know exactly where we were!

After lunch, we spent a few minutes on the beach before hopping on a little water taxi back to the ship. All of the amenities (read: resorts, restaurants, night clubs, bars, hotels) were there for a great party weekend ~ perhaps a lifetime ago for me. It was a nice day and I think I can speak for all of us that we were glad to go there, but take me back to Puerto Vallarta! ;-)
Our ship, from la playa.


You can kind of catch a glimpse of all of the resorts tucked into the beaches...
Time to go ... back to the ship.

Another resort shot. And look behind the resorts -- nada. This was the view from one side of our ship... and from the other side...
... Absolutely gorgeous, untouched beaches and cliffs.
I love this shot of the rocks and the deck. I enjoyed taking a stroll on board here.


After our third and final day trekking around Mexico, when we were sort of settling in and preparing for our New Year's Eve, followed by a calm, quiet day on the water, watching this sunset from our balcony was absolutely magical.

That night was New Year’s Eve! We had learned on day one of this trip that our ship is NOT equipped for little people. They are used to 10-20 children under 3 per trip, and this cruise, they had over 300!!! So, imagine the families all over the boat with a little miniature in their arms or running a-mock on the boat, particularly when we are set to get completely dolled up for the evening. We didn’t know what this night had in store for us, as each night prior, we had to turn in pretty early. (Not that party-man went to bed at a decent hour on even one occasion, but we could only have him running us ragged for so long before retiring to our more confined space!) Fortunately, after we were all prettied up for the night, we enjoyed a lovely dinner and hit the karaoke lounge. Kyan had made that a favorite place to flirt, dance, and schmooze earlier in the week, so we figured it was our best bet. He danced himself into my arms and fell asleep, and after karaoke, we went to the piano bar, an evening spot we all enjoyed immensely. It was one of the quieter, calmer spots on board and we said goodbye to 2010 in a cozy booth, enjoying great music and each other’s company… with a sleeping monkey on my shoulder.

The men getting themselves ready - serious business!

Does this shot make anyone else think of Reservoir Dogs?

Muy guapo!

Riding the elevator down to dinner in style


Pardon the napkin on his head - it was trying to hold his hat up.

Kyan met many ladies on his trip... this little chickadee was one of his favorites.



Happy New Year!!


Champagne, anyone? We've got plenty.

This was one of our very favorite, wonderful bartenders. The staff on board was the nicest, kindest bunch of people. Kelly was mindful enough to capture a shot of Lee with our pal Ryngo - in the piano lounge.

Every party must come to an end...

On January 1, we slept in and then spent our last day relaxing as the boat seemingly flew back to San Diego. We participated in a 5K walk (yes, walk - not run, thankyouverymuch) as part of "On Deck for the Cure" before Kelly and I mozied over to a towel-folding lesson (now we know how the monkey is made!), we all enjoyed afternoon tea, and I think I ate four desserts that night, to make sure nothing was left behind! (Really, I wanted to ensure that my pants wouldn’t button when I got off the boat.)



Our last Tea time

Our towel-folding "seminar" :-)


It was a fantastic, busy, thrilling week. And fun is really tiring!! :-)

We packed our things, managed to get a babysitter for a couple of hours so we could have one final hoorah in the piano bar, and we spent our last night on the water.

We woke up to very familiar surroundings - we were home. Grateful and happy for the week behind, pleased to have said adios to an old year in a new way, and ready for the year ahead... after a final coffee at the coffee shop that we had come to know, we were ready to be home.

Happy New Year! xo